a. Her entire involvement in this case appears to stem from her usual finger-in-the-wind desire to gratify the biggest, loudest, most obvious set of clamoring voices. If this woman possesses a set of core beliefs that occasionally supersede her natural instinct for cheap politics, she does not exhibit them very often. In this case, what has spurred her to seek a remedy that exists somewhere beyond the normal scope of the law? The fact that she is getting a lot phone calls. She's sort of the "American Idol" governor. Phone calls and text messages mean, as far as I can tell, more to her than just about anything.

b. Having decided to interfere in this case, did she seek a legal rationale? Nope. She just had kind of a public tantrum about it. Did she (or anyone from her staff) meet with the probation officials overseeing this case to learn more about how it was going to be handled or to get an understanding of the particulars? Apparently not, according to Mr. Carbone. That would be far too much work for this deeply lazy and hoplelessly superficial chief executive. All she really has to contribute here is a wordless, thoughtless, primal Munch scream.

c. I'm no lawyer, but her public suggeestion that law enforcement should flyspeck this guy and look for a technicality on which to violate would seem, to me, to open certain legal avenues for Mr. Rapist. Probation violations are usually kind of slam-bang affairs with no opportunity for review; but here you have a governor -- a governor! -- openly encouraging cops to proactively seek an excuse for violation. That's a little over the top. If I were the guy's lawyer, I'd see that as something I could maybe use in court, down the line. So from that point of view, Rell's posturing could conceivably have the opposite effect of what she intends.

d. In some larger sense, Rell's actions are unworthy of a reasonably competent 8th grade civics student. The whole notion of a government of laws rests on the idea that officials will, um, follow the laws. Yes, each case is different and, yes, the behavior of the courts and the cops will shape themselves around the particulars of each case. But that shaping can only take place within the circumference of the law itself, not outside it. Here we have the spectacle of a governor so caught up in her own demagoaguery that she exhibits not even a speck of curiosity about the law.

As I said at the outset, there are distasteful aspects to a case like this one, including the possibility that this guy, despite all the monitoring, may rape again. But that's no excuse for the kind of miserable, tacky grandstanding of Rell. I'd be interested to know a little more about what Blumenthal thinks about this too. It wouldn't kill him to stand up for principle here, would it? If Rell gets this guy back in prison, she may want to crack open some champagne with him, if you know what I mean.

I'll let a lawyer have the last word here:

"It shows her lack of understanding about the Constitution and her limited powers as an executive. She doesn't get that," Schoenhorn said. "Maybe the governor wants to get a pitchfork and a torch and yell epithets in front of the sister's house."

And while the recidivism rate for these sorts of crimes is high, its not 100% (and there are folks who get caught up in isolated, stupid incidents) - so some people who might otherwise be able to mend their ways are ostracized and demonized, unable to find housing or employment, and so are left with time on their hands and every excuse to hate the rest of society. Sounds like a recipe for continued offending to me.

There are no clear or easy answers. But if the goal is that no sex offender live within a 1/4 mile of children or women....that leaves pretty much nowhere. So where do these folks go?

That was very complicated as the law always gets. Why can't Ma Rell just call Eddie Perez to take a walk up to the Capitol, take the guy into Hartford and dump him off in some less deserving area than that cozy little enclave he's headed for. That seems to be the attitude of his new neibhors including our infamous puss in the press Attorney General.

There appears to be this movement toward "cowboy style" leadership in the Republic Party and it's a style that's been "perfected" by George W. "Dead or Alive" Bush. And while it's dumb enough when somebody as "skilled" as Bush does it, in M. Jodi's case it's just plain ridiculous - I mean she really sucks at it.

The scarriest part is that much of population eats this stuff up. Because it makes them feel good; it makes them feel safe.

Usually it goes something like this: The bleeding-heart liberals want to let everybody out of jail . . . but fortunately there are leaders like Jodi Rell who are tough on crime and who will stop at nothing to keep a dangerous criminal behind bars.

Just for the record: I am a bleeding heart liberal and I am totally in favor of tougher sentences for violent offenses. I'm just not in favor of executive leaders deciding on the fly what the law should be.

Governor Rell came in with a tremendous opportunity to right the ship of state. She had, and maintains, tremendous political capital to do great things and make bold moves. Sadly, this fine woman, has, for reasons unknown, become a wholly infective chief executive.

During her inaugural speech she said the following;

"...But it is a burden made light if we accept our challenge of leadership, mindful that we will be measured by our actions not our words, by our policies not our politics, and by the resoluteness of our commitment."

Blumenthal should be grieved for bringing his ridiculous arguments to court yesterday. You should have asked him on the radio to list one example when he personally intervened in court when a sex offender was located in an inner city neighborhood. He kind of snuck that one by you, Colin.

Rell should have Lisa Moody camp out on this guy's lawn, that would keep the neighborhood safe.

you have the chestnuts to call ms. rell to task when others just do her bidding.

our governor is a prime example of what is wrong with most civil servants today...they are so worried about the freakin' sound bite, that any attempt at meaningful change or progress is thrown out the window. it's a shame, too, because she had me convinced that she would make a difference. what a load of crap i bought !!!